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Sony Interactive Entertainment is reportedly donating to an abortion fund, following PlayStation head Jim Ryan’s comments last week.
Ryan sent an e-mail to staff, asking employees to “respect differences of opinion” on abortion rights:
“We owe it to each other and to PlayStation’s millions of users to respect differences of opinion among everyone in our internal and external communities. Respect does not equal agreement. But it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand.”
In the same e-mail, Ryan said he “would like to share something lighthearted to help inspire everyone.” He then apparently went on to describe his pet cats in some detail, and for five paragraphs.
Now, according to a report from The Washington Post (via VGC), employees at Insomniac Games have donated to an abortion fund. The Post has viewed an internal e-mail, sent by Insomniac CEO Ted Price, stating that Sony will match the donation. The donation is $50,000 to the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. Plus, Sony will also match any individual donations made by staff through the PlayStation Cares programme.
Price also said that PlayStation won’t allow any of its studios to publicly comment on abortion rights issues. “[SIE] will not approve ANY statements from any studio on the topic of reproductive rights. We fought hard for this and we did not win.”
He then concluded:
“As far as our freedom of speech goes, while we do have a LOT of autonomy that often gets taken for granted, there are times where we need to acknowledge we’re part of a larger organization. For the most part our ability to tweet has been unfettered. However there are rare times when we’re in opposition (like this week) and SIE will have the final say.”
